The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-05-22
RARE OLD DOCUMENTS.
Diaries of George Washington and AL
MANAGES of Jefferson

Diaries of George Washington and Al
MANAGES of Jefferson.
Washington Correspondence Cleveland Leader
Many OF the most interesting possessions
of our government are never seen by the
stran ger. The great departments of Wash
lngton are packed full of curious autograph
papers and rare documents. The Treasury
has files enough to carpet any State of the
Union. and the State Department has i'm
portant autograph letter describing the in
side history of every event which has taken
place during the past 100 years. 1t has
diaries of George Washington, almanacs of
Thomas Jefferson with marginal notes, and
it contains, am told, letters which if pub
lished would not leave the characters of
some of our heroes Of the past as high on the
scale of morality as they now stand. The
War Department has all the kilograms sent
from the White House during the late war,
and in book of these l found the other
day some curious messages which Abraham
Lincoln sent, in which he mentions his boy
Tad. 1t has all of the papers of the Confed-
crate government as they were captured at
Richmond, and these gathered together in
one room makes up the picture of a dead
nation in nutshell. The Pension Office has
many a curious memento which has crept in
among the papers. They are claims for gov
eminent land signed by A. Lincoln, Jeffer-
son Davis, Ulysses S. Grant and John A.
Logan, for services in the Mexican war, and
/ came across here a paper which showed
James G. Blaine's eat-grandmother got a
pension for the services of her husband in
1912. There are diaries here of soldiers of the
revolution, sent by their defendants to prove
that they were i'll the army, and there are
bushels of family Bibles which have served
the same purpose packed away, but ready
to be sent out to their owners if de-
manded.
The Treasury contains much unwritten
history in the Pickett papers which Con-
gress paid about 5000 for, because they
contained information which aided in estab-
fishing the loyalty or disloyalty of certain
claims made upon the government during
the late war, and its early revenue files are
full of interest
In the firstrecords of the Supreme Court
you may see the books which have the sig
natures of Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamil-
ton, and others of the great lawyers of the
past, made when they were here first admit
ted to practice. The first record of admis-
sion is kept in great vault, and its auto
graphs make it worth its weight in gold. I
mad the clerk to show it to rue one day. 1t
is a very ordinary looking blank book foot
and half long and xinches wide. Its COW
ers are rusty with many years, and its
parchment bound corners have been eaten
through by time. On its back is red label,
and here is read: 1.-THE Supreme Court of
the United States" Opening it, the paper
is rough and unruled, and its quality is
poorer than that now used as wrapping
sheets in corner grocery. 1t has been dis
colored by the faded pink blotters which lie
between its leaves, and its ink has paled.
This book is within three years of 100
years old. 1t was begun in 1850, and /
fol ~ fD, Aly,f
Supreme Courts existence it had but little
work to do. They are no admissions to its
bar recorded during. the first year, and the
first two lawyers that practiced before it
are John Caldwell and Benjamin r. Nor
gan, who were admitted in 1871. Two pages
of the record contain the names of all the
lawyers who practiced before the court for
twenty six years, or until 1916, and l note
that Alexander Hamilton, one of the most
noted lawyer of his time, did not see fit to
apply for entrance to it before 1922 Allen G.
Humans name is read on the Both page;
and after this time the admissions multiply
and soon fill volumes instead of pages. The
Supreme Court work has sprung from moth
ing into the busiest and best-paying practice
in the country and its lawyers often re-
ceive fees which run into the tens of thou
sands.
More interesting than all else, however,
as far as original papers are concerned, are
the flle-rooms of Congress. The House of
Representatives has the original documents
of all the papers connected with its history.
1t has every bill that has ever been intro
duced, every petition that has ever been
presented, every message that President
has ever sent, and the original reports of the
Cabinet Ministers back to the days when
Washington was President and Alexander
Hamilton managed the Treasury. It'll impos-
sible 10 conceive the extent of these papers
They fill thousands of bound manuscript
volumes, and the brain reels in the attempt
ed comprehension of the matter contained
in them, The only man in the United States
who has any adequate idea of them is the
Hon, Ferris Finch, the file clerk of the
House. who has had charge of them for a
generation, and who has brought them into
order out of Choas. They are now so ar
ranged that at a moments notice any paper
can be found, and as | walked through room
after room walled with them to-day /
could see that the completest classification
had been made climbed story after story
of narrow iron stairs surrounded by these
dead bones of past administration, and finally
away up under the dome OF the capital
building, where the light comes in only
through a glass-covered hole i'll the roof, |
found myself carried back TO the earliest
days Of our government.
All around me, in ledger-like volumes, lay
the messages OF tlP Garner IfeSluenUs, ana
every book | opened brought to my eyes
something new and rare in antiquarian his
tory. Many Of the messages were in the
handwriting of the President who signed
them, and the reports of the Secretaries
were often made IN the same way, ] Stun
bled across the papers in which Jefferson
announced TO Congress that he would send
written messages TO them, and would not
come in person TO deliver speeches, as his
predecessors had done And ] found tho
written instructions, probably kept secret
when they were issued, on which in our
war with The Barbary powers the American
navel officers were instructed to pay $4,000
and $50 900 to secure immunity for Ameri-
can commerce from their piratical ships. l
saw many messages Of John Adams in his
bold up-and-down hand, as pompous in pen
and ink as their writer was in person, and
as l read them recalled Adams vanity, and
the remark he made when q friend said:
"Mr. Adams you and Gen. Whashiuton did
WE'LL
With Strengthening up Of his little fat
form and throwing back of his semi-bald
head, he replied; beg your pardon, sir;
YOU should not say George Washington and
John Adam, but John Adams and George
Washington, for John Adams made George
Waahfurtou y